


Disappearence

by NotEvenNightshade



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: BAMF Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Bounty Hunters, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Kidnapped Lance, Kidnapping, Kidnapping mystery, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance can’t catch a break lmao, Lance is missing, Langst, M/M, Missing Lance, Mystery, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Paladins, Protective Shiro (Voltron), Rebel Matt, Sad Keith (Voltron), Sad Shiro (Voltron), Space Uncle Coran (Voltron), Spoilers in the tags but only a bit, Voltron season 4 spoilers, established klance, klangst, poor lance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2018-12-30 23:51:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12120000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotEvenNightshade/pseuds/NotEvenNightshade
Summary: Lance disappears on the way to his first date with Keith.Even after weeks of looking, there's nothing. Lance just..vanished.After 3 weeks of utter silence, the team learns that Lance has been taken.But why? And by who?Whilst Keith worries, Lance has to rely on every piece of training he's ever had if he hopes to make it out of wherever the hell he is alive. On the way- he may realise he's not as alone as he once thought he was.Join Keith and the rest of Team Voltron as they are pushed harder than ever before to find him.If they can get to him in time, that is.





	1. Disappearances and phone calls

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know why I decided to do this but hERE GOES. 
> 
> Please don't expect super regular updates I'm a mess and super disorganized but I'll try my best- I'm working on another fic as well as this one so updates may be a bit spacey.  
> Do tell me if my grammar/Spelling is off- nobody has Beta-ed this so tbh there's probably something.  
> Comments and Kudos are much appreciated!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was supposed to be their first date, but in the middle of Keith's phone call with Lance, there's a huge bang, and suddenly, Lance is gone.
> 
> Can Keith find him in time?

It was supposed to be their first date.

When the news had finally broke that yes, Lance and Keith were dating, and were wondering whether they could go to the planet they were stopping at and actually have a real date, the rest of Team Voltron exploded.

Pidge had taken one look at the both of them, totally poker faced, and yelled something about Lance’s garrison fantasies finally coming true, before being rugby tackled my Lance, who, afterwards, emerged extremely red in the face, all the whilst pidge dissolved into laughter, Allura net to her murmuring something about it being “about time”.

Hunk and Coran had been the most surprising of them all, acting like everything was fine in pubic and then _wham,_ practically slamming him against a wall one day after training, Hunk telling him, in a voice that was _really low_ that if Keith dared to hurt Lance in any way “so help me god I can and _will_ poison your food goo”, all the while Coran stood in the background,, arms crossed, nodding ever so slightly.

Keith was still slightly freaked out by that encounter.

Afterwards, Shiro had sat Keith down spent hours lecturing Keith on the art of wooing someone he liked, helped him pick the perfect outfit, and told him _repeatedly_ to be home by no later than 10 “otherwise there will be... consequences, Kogane”, much to Keith’s utter mortification.

Still, the new couple had practically lept at the opportunity to go on the date on a real planet. Now obviously it wasn’t earth, but hey, at least it wasn’t going to spent in some weird sector of the castle, half convinced Pidge was lurking in one of the vents recording the entire thing. They were going to alone together, hell, they were going to be somewhat _normal,_ and both of them were more excited then they could possibly remember.

It was supposed to be great.

And it was, at first. The Paladins were staying in a fancy hotel on Olkarion, a planet with violent red and yellow colourings decorating the surface, with Allura and Coran opting to stay at the castle and do some busy work.

The people of Olkarion were warm and friendly, and the paladins had been kept busy helping

Keith was jittery, waiting for Lance at the restaurant they had picked. It had been unanimously decided that Keith would go ahead to the restaurant whilst Lance stayed behind to help another villager in Pysda. He was supposed to be finishing up and heading over to Keith right now, and Keith’s nerves _would not calm their fucking shit._

He just wanted everything to turn out okay, ya know? He had been wanting this for as long as he could remember, and now that it was actually happening he could barely believe it.

 

* * *

 

It started out as a simple phone call, Lance simply telling Keith he was gonna be late. Lance sounded so remorseful, Keith ended up having to comfort his boyfriend (were they boyfriends now???? Huh.. Keith would have to ask him about that later.)

But just as they were about to end the call, Lance telling him he was about to call some form of a taxi, and that “I’ll be there in 20 minutes, tops!”, there was a deafening bang, a clatter of movements, Lance’s “Hey what the-” yell echoing through the phone, before the line abruptly went dead.

* * *

 

At first, Keith wasn’t sure what to think. His mind entered a state of shock, and by the time he had managed to gather his mind up to _whatever the hell just happened,_ stared at his phone, rather dumbly.

Here’s the thing.

After fighting an evil alien purple cat thing for however many years, the paladins were warriors. And not just any kind of warrior, they were good. Unbelievably good, actually. They had faced near-death experiences so often that too be honest, something like this shouldn't have really bothered with that much.

Logically, a gas pipe could’ve leaked or something, and the phone going dead is _almost definitely_ not a big deal, and even if it _was_ some form of “deal”, Keith knew for a fact that Lance could handle it.

So why was there panic slowly blooming in his chest? Why did he feel his eyebrows form into a frown line, why did he feel his breath become slightly shallow?

He knew he had to calm down. All he needed to do was call Lance.

Simple enough, right?

Fumbling slightly with his phone, he redialed Lance's number, and waited.

* * *

 

And waited. And waited.

No answer.

He was now outside of the restaurant, standing on the edge of the street, hoping to spot some kind of sign of Lance.

Keith rang Lance’s phone, again.  

He listened. 2 rings turned into 4.. 6.. 8 rings.... 16 rings... No answer. Soon the voice which kept on greeting him spoke once again

"we are sorry, but this number is currently unavailable"

Keith cursed and pathetically tried texting Lance again.

 "Lance don't scare me like this”

Nothing.

A couple minutes later, he tried again.

“Lance, this isn't funny anymore... just tell me you're alright.. Please.”

He sent it and felt his anxiety growing more and more by the second. A deep swooping feeling of terror erupted from inside Keith’s stomach.

Lance was in trouble. Serious trouble.

Petty, low key crime battles only last about a minute or two. They were so advanced with their fighting skills that normally, if someone unimportant _did_ try to take them on, they would immediately back off when they realised how bad they had fucked up.

He tried again, his fingers trembling. Still no answer. Cursing, he was tempted to throw his phone across the road.

Lance had always been the one saving Keith from embarrassment when Keith got into difficult positions. Countless events of Lance defending him, saving him, showing that he cared. Sure, he could be obnoxious at times, but he was really lovable, talkative, and over all a kind person.

He was the person who Keith had crushed on for so, so long. He was the person that was soft yet loud, Serious yet fun. He was perfect, and Keith was losing his mind in worry.

Suddenly he knew what he had to do.

He dialed Shiro’s number, and waited.

He picked up on the second ring.

“Keith? What’s up? Aren’t you with Lance?”

“..Shiro..” His voice cracked. _He was not going to cry in public, goddamnit._

“Keith?” Shiro’s voice showed layers upon layers of worry. “Keith, what’s the matter? Where’s Lance?”

“He..He.. Shiro I don’t know.. Something’s happened to him, Shiro, I don’t know where he is, but something’s wrong Shiro. I think he’s in trouble. I...I don't know what to-"

"Hey, hey Keith, listen." Shiro's voice was firm, but he could hear the paladins asking what the hell was going on, and Shiro's quiet murmurs. "I'm on my way, think you can wait for a little? Don't worry kiddo, everything will be fine."

Keith swallowed a lump forming in his throat.

_Everything will be fine._

* * *

 

3 weeks.

It had been 3 weeks since Lance was last seen.

 _Eveything will be fine my ass_.

Shiro, immediately, had demanded answers, demanded to know whether this was a trap by the people of Olkarion, if they were working with the Galra somehow, but that was quickly disproved. The people of Olkarion were infamously known for being peaceful, and would never dream of something like this. They were more than willing to assist the team with helping find Lance.

The problem was, nobody knew where to start.

There was no evidence of any sort of fight. No scuffle, no random bits of clothing or Lance’s belongings lying around somewhere.

He had just.. Vanished.

The team was more subdued, all of them stepping around Keith as if he would explode any second. They had tried their best to reassure Keith that everything had be alright, but they were all grieving as well. Lance was the heart of Team Voltron, and without him, they all felt so _alone._

He was pacing in his room when it happened.

He had skipped dinner, once again, and had locked himself in his room. First the whole mess with Shiro disappearing, then the clone, then _finally_ getting him back, all for another one of his teammates, of his _family,_ to disappear...again?

It just, wasn’t fair.

He was so absorbed with his thoughts he almost missed the phone start to ring.He reached over to it, not caring that it was an unknown number, and picked up, saying, “It’s Keith.”

The voice was muffled, fear draping its way into each and every syllable. The voice familiar, oh so familiar, but scared. Terrified, even.

"..Keith? Keith are you there? It's me...I need your help.”

_Lance._

All at once, his sadness disappeared. It was Lance. He was _alive._

Days and weeks of worrying, insomnia, guilt, sadness, vanishing within a second.

All because of  a voice.

But something was wrong. Lance was scared, his breathing ragged and shallow, his voice oozing with fear.

"..Keith? Are you there? Can you.. Can you hear me?"

The voice shot him back into the present. Quickly he whispered "Lance? " Then, forcing his voice to be stronger- "Lance? What's going on? Are you okay?"

"I don't know where I am Keith. I don't know where I am and nobody will tell me anything.  Jasper and I had to work so hard together to get the singal working on this phone, behind everyone's back. If they found out we’d be in so much trouble.”

Ignoring a swarm of questions erupting in Keith's mind, he forced himself to remain as calm as he possibly could and said "Lance..do you.. Who are they? Do you know why they've taken you?"

A burst of static made Kieth cringe slightly, then "They're moving us today, I think. I'll keep the phone, you need to-" He was cut off my static

"Who's moving you? Lance, what d I need to do?"

Silence.

"Lance?"

"Keith-"static. "Trace the call Keith! They're here!" Static, then a punch and a groan from someone, not Lance, maybe this Jasper person? Yells in a language he couldn’t quite place, then quite clearly, Lance shouting “No!”

Before silence.

 


	2. Waking Up- To Ash and Dust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We see a flashback to Lance waking up for the first time, meeting a friend, and learning more about where he is.
> 
> Back at the present time, Keith and the others react to the information that Lance has supplied them with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is gonna alternate between the past POV for Lance, and present POV for Keith/the others, until you're all caught up to where Lance is.  
> As usual, kudos/comments are very very lovely!
> 
> Updates still don't have any set date on them, but hopefully I'll find some sort of a pace to go at soon. Also, like I said in the last chapter, nobody is Beta-ing this, so if there are any spelling/grammar mistakes, feel free to let me know in the comments.  
> You can yell at me on tumblr if you want- "@notevennightshade"  
> Until then, enjoy!

**\---3 weeks prior to the phone call---**

Lance woke up, disorientated. He instinctively tried to raise his right hand but it was tugged back with a metallic pull. Fear erupted in his gut, as he looked around wildly, trying to get some kind of bearing as to _what the hell was going on._ He had an earsplitting headache that was steadily getting worse, but some of the fear in his stomach that had been bubbling away subdued itself when he realised his other limbs were free. However: the darkness surrounding him was anything but comforting, the blackness embraced him scornfully, mocking his utter helplessness.

“...The Hell...?” Head still pounding like a bitch, he pulled at them harder, again, with no result. Heart shuddering slightly, he blinked away any sort of drowsiness that had previously surrounded him, and tried to get some sort of bearing as to _where the hell he was._ He tried to remember something, _anything,_ but his mind only ever came up as blank.

Fantastic.

Okay okay. _Breathe._ Think about it logically. “Think of your training.” He murmured, closing his eyes, and taking a deep breath. “Okay; first things first- figure out where you are, and what’s going on. Then worry about who did this to you.”

“I wouldn’t waste your time.”

Lance yelped at the unknown voice and instinctively tried to edge away, only to be stopped by the metal chain.

“Sorry, that probably freaked you out loads. My names Jasper”

The voice greeted him again. It had an accent to it.. British, maybe? But it was soft and tired, as if whatever panic Lance was going through, this voice had gone through ten times worse.

He fumbled for a reply. “Uh..Lance.”

“Well Lance, as I was saying, you shouldn’t waste your breath trying to figure out who put you here. I’ve been here about 5 months, and they’ve never shown their faces.”

Well fuck.

Lance tried again “Do you at least know why you’re here? Why _we’re_ here?”

“Well, probably because we’re both humans.”

Lance almost choked. “I..we..you..?”

“It’s not _always_ dark in here, Lance. When they brought you in I could see you were a human from the light in the hallway. And obviously, now you know I’m human too. I reckon that has something to do with why we’re here.”

“It’s not _that._ Jeez, you.. There are more humans out here? I thought me and my team were the only ones, honestly.”

Lance heard Jasper snort slightly under his breath. “There aren’t a lot, but there are some.”

_What?_

Deciding to ask about the more important things, he said; “Are we’re the only..” He faltered slightly, “humans here?”

“What, you mean if we’re the only abductees?” Jasper sounded bitter. “Hell no. There are like, 12 of us. The people who've done this know what shit they're pulling.”

Lance could barely think, could barely breathe. This wasn’t some random galra who wanted part of Voltron. He could handle that, hell, his team could handle that. But this was oh so different.  

Whoever kidnapped him had kidnapped _other humans._ Other humans in the middle of the galaxy, where Lance had originally thought there were none. And according to Jasper, almost half a year had passed without any sort of face being revealed to them, any sort of answers being given.

Fuck, what had he gotten himself into?

* * *

 

**\---Present Time; at the Castle.---**

 

Keith was going to go insane.

As soon as the line had gone flat, he had collapsed, screaming for Shiro. Of course, shiro had burst in almost immediately, along with the other paladins in full armour, chests heaving and guns blazing.

Once they had established that there was no apparent threat to be seen, they all visibly relaxed. Even so, it had taken nearly 20 minutes to calm Keith down, who was a blubbering mess, angry tears mixing with snot cascading their way down his face. He was hysterical, and it taken Shiro pulling Keith into a room alone, and just holding him for him to calm down enough for him to say what had happened.

Lance was alive.

And now here they all were, a few hours after the phone call, huddled together in the castles common room, Keith still being half held by Shiro, half bundled up by all the blankets Shiro could find. Fuck not wanting to show emotion. Keith was distraught.

And he wasn’t the only one. Hunk, normally the gentle spirited, lovable paladin had showed so much anger that Keith had been subjected to all those weeks ago when he had first announced his relationship with Lance.

That seemed like an awful long time ago.

Pidge was poker faced and silent, giving almost nothing anyway. That was, until Coran had found her hidden away in her room, muttering hysterically, obsessively typing in coordinate after coordinate: desperately trying to find some sort of a lead.

“Tell me again, what exactly did he say?”

Ever the diplomat, Allura was the one who had ordered the “meeting” in the first place, and now here she was, getting straight to business, pen and paper in hand. Keith sighed, recounting the phone conversation for what seemed like the millionth time. When he was done, he looked round at the paladins, each one with differing looks of anger or terror plastered across their faces, all whilst Allura scribbled furiously onto her notepad, missing no detail.

“I already told you. It was an unknown number, and most of what he said didn’t make any sense. Just..” Keith paused. What the hell was he supposed to say now? “..something about him being in danger.”

Allura’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, finishing up her writing, and looked over at Pidge. “Where are you on tracing the signal?”

“I’ve managed to locate some basic information so far.” Pidge looked up from her laptop “The phone location is luckily still on the planet and in the same country, but apart from that, I still need some more time before I get anymore information.”

“How long?” That was Hunk.

“...A day, probably”

“We might not have a day! For all we know, he could be in a completely different place by now! Pidge, can’t you go faster??”

“Well, would _you_ like to have a go; Hunk?”

“This isn’t the time for your immature sarcasm, Pidge!”

“ _I’m_ being immature ?!” Pidge exclaimed, outraged

“Alright _enough_ ,” Shiro’s firm tone ended the argument rather abruptly. “You two never fight, and Lance would be the first one to tell you that you’re better than this.” He sighed, looking round at the others. “What we need most of all, is rest.”

“How in _all of the universe-_

“We need to sleep.” He cut Pidge off again, staring her down and she seemed to shrink under his look. Closing his eyes, he continued. “Pidge, you’ve been working non stop for days now,even when there wasn’t any sort of a lead. You yourself said it was going to take a while before we got more information. The only thing we can do right now..is wait.”

“Well then I’m going to go train” His voice muffled slightly by the tsunami of blankets, he was almost unheard. Still,  At least, that’s what he thought, before Keith was bombarded with varying exclamations of _Keith so help me God if you train right now-_

“Keith.” A new voice cut all of them off. “Bed. Now. Lord knows, you need it.” Surprisingly, this was Coran, his gentle yet firm tone filling the room with warmth. “All of you know that Lance wouldn’t want you to be suffering on his behalf, and would be the very first one to say that you need to rest. Training won’t do you good, Keith, not now.” He flicked his gaze over to Shiro. “But worrying all night won’t help Lance either, Shiro.”

The black paladin looked as if he wanted to reply before stopping himself and nodding.

“Okay. Then...let’s get to bed.”

  
  



	3. Don't Forget Him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance realises the situation is far worse than he had previously anticipated.
> 
> Back at the castle, Pidge starts to formulate some sort of a plan based on where the signal from Lance's phone was. Whilst this is happening, Keith finds out that even the people closest to him seem to be forgetting about Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  
> Thankyou so much for the lovely comments and kudos! Getting a comment literally makes my day, I love interacting with you guys :D
> 
> As usual, if you spot any grammar/spelling mistakes, leave a comment for me down below  
> My tumblr is "@Notevennightshade" if you ever wanna message me or leave any suggestions as to the future of the story! (I have a brief idea of what's going to happen, but because of season 4 happening, I've changed a couple things to make it seem more canon-realistic (This is still, however, a fic, and will eventually branch off into very non-canon stuff)  
> Also this chapter was about 3000 words wHAT.
> 
> I think, like with my other fic (check it out it's a circus au) I aim to upload a new chapter every two weeks, although sometimes that may vary.
> 
> All in all, I hope you enjoy!

**Lance POV- Before the phone call.**

 

When the abductors finally visited the boys to give them food and water, they wore masks that covered every last inch of their face. They spoke in a thick accent of which Lance couldn’t quite place, and took their time berating him and Jasper daily. Whether it was withdrawing their food intake for days on end, and laughing at how desperate Lance became to eat something, or mocking their utter helplessness at the entirety of the situation, their captors seemed to almost get high on it.

Jasper, despite having no certain idea who he even was, reassured him, kept him sane. Lance was hesitant to bring up his paladin status, as Shiro and Allura had drilled it into his mind more times than he could possibly remember to  _“never give away your identity if you've been compromised.”_ Logically he knew that he could trust Jasper, but honestly, all he knew about him was from his voice in the pitch black.

After what he had judged was a couple days of complete and utter darkness, two huge figures entered the room, one with a ponytail that stretched to their waist, a violent mix of colours contrasting with their dark red skin. The other had an entirely shaved side, the side with hair flopping forward, and she was very, very blue. Light erupted from the ceilings. He was so busy cringing at the sudden addition of light he didn’t notice what the figures were saying until they were halfway through their next sentence.

“..flimsy creature” The Blue One stated, little to no emotion present in her (was it a her?? They sounded feminine sure, but with aliens, you could never be certain) voice. She turned to her partner, the one in red, and carried on “Are you sure this is the one?”

“Certain, Acxa” this one had almost a slight giggle in her voice. “And they’re not flimsily! I find them _cute_ ” The red one then turned and looked directly at Jasper, who Lance realised with a jolt, that now with the addition of light, he could actually see the guy he had been speaking too since his abduction, and he hadn’t even _looked_ at him yet.

Okay, _woah._

His eyes were sunken in, great big bags underneath them. He wore the same as Lance, an all black onesie fitted with a dark purple crop top, but, what was different was his skin.

It looked as if someone had forcibly written, perhaps tattooed all over him, incoherent symbols or words splattered across his arms and peaking out from his ankles. He was barefoot, and his olive skin looked like it was grey from what lance guessed to be lack of sun and a whole lotta malnourishment.

And yet, he wore a defiant glare that tore into Acxa and the other general. He pulled at his chains slightly, and Lance noted that Jasper was wearing some sort of alien handcuffs around both arm, fastened roughly to the wall.

The red one smirked slightly. “Ooh! But Lotor didn’t mention anything about this one! And who might you be?”

Jasper merely growled.

Acxa let out a disgruntled huff “Ezor; would you please stop fooling around. You’re lucky the others haven’t realised who he his.” She smirked slightly, “The bounty on the blue paladin is enough to have us set for *weeks*. We don’t need this...being”.

“Oh but he’s just so *pretty!* she cooed, admiration clear in her eyes. Ezor crouched and cupped one of her hands around Jasper's chin, much to his protests. “Look at how he struggles! It’s _adorable_ Acxa! Please please _please_ can we keep him?”

They continued to ignore Jasper yelling a fusillade of curses at the both of them. Lance could only watch in silence as steady building horror built itself into the pit of his stomach.

Axca sighed slightly. “Fine. But _you’re_ paying for him”.

“Fine by me!” Ezor glanced at Lance, who cringed away slightly, “You two be nice to each other, Alright?” She giggled and followed Acxa out of the room, where the door slammed shut.

Hey, at least the lights were left on, right?

Small mercies.

Lance turned to Jasper, who was breathing heavy and anger was plastered across his starved face. “Are you okay man?”

Jasper grunted in response.

Then-

“You’re a paladin of Voltron”

It was a statement, rather than a question, and etched within it were layers and layers of emotion- confusion, anger...fear? Lance didn’t really know what to say, so he mumbled “Yeah. I’m the blue paladin”

Jasper cursed “Then you’re in even more trouble than I thought.”

“What? Why?”

“Didn’t you hear them, Lance?” Jasper finally met Lance's eyes, and his face softened slightly. “You’re worth a lot to the Galra.” He paused, “I presume the people who have us here don’t know that, or else they would deliver you straight to Zarkon and collect the bounty themselves. But now it looks like you’re heading there anyway, and apparently, so am I”

“Oh.”

At this, Jasper snorted, “You just got told you’re heading off to be tortured and possibly killed at the hands of Zarkon and the other Galra, and that’s all you have to say?”

Lance again found himself unsure of how to reply. “I don’t know, I’m just...” empty? To scared to think properly that I feel nothing? Terrified beyond my wits?

“I’m just scared.”

Well _nice going there, Lance,_ now this random guy thinks that you’re a big wimp.

“Good.” A curt reply, “It’d be weird if you weren’t scared. What we need to do is somehow find a signal we can boost so that your friends at Voltron can help us out.”

“I mean, sure, but what about the other humans?”

He frowned “I...don’t know. But we’ll figure something out.”

Honestly, Lance was kindof surprised by how much of a serious manner Jasper had adopted. He didn’t look much older than Lance, maybe Shiro’s age, but he wore the same haunted expression that was often evident on the Black Paladin's face when the PTSD came back.

Lance closed his eyes and shuddered into a breath, attempting to calm himself down slightly.

Voltron would find him. They had too.

 

* * *

 

 

**Present time: at the castle.**

 

“I’ve managed to program the blip to scout out all the possible locations where the frequency activity matches the phone Lance was using on the planet.” Pidge sighed slightly. “But, as of now, all we have to go on is that Lance disappeared likely because someone has it out for Voltron.”

“But wouldn’t there be some sort of a ransom call?” Said Hunk, eyes glued to the screen he was currently (attempting) to program. “I mean, wouldn’t someone- the guy who has Lance- wouldn’t they have said something by this point?”

“Yeah, are you even sure it’s to do with Voltron?” Keith wondered aloud.

“I mean... _no_ , but what else would it be?”

Keith huffed slightly “I don’t know. I just.. I don’t like this. It’s taking way too long and for all we know he could be on the other side of the galaxy by now.”

“Keith, patience.” Reminded Shiro. “Lance is a smart kid, and it looks like whoever that Jasper guy is, he’s trustworthy. Lance...Lance will be fine.”

“He didn’t sound fine when the phone died!”

“But he will be. Patience-“

“-yields focus, I know.” He breathed out slowly, closing his eyes. “I just...I don’t know what to do.”

Pidge, surprisingly, softened her gaze as it fell over to Keith. “Keith, all of us are worried about Lance. But we have to have some sort of faith in him. He’s a smart guy, really, and I’m sure he’ll be okay.”

Keith sighed, looking at his feet. The entire situation was just so royally _fucked up._

What kind of irony is it when the guy you’ve been pining after for God knows how llong likes you back, and just as you’re about to go on your first date, he’s kidnapped?

And Keith did think Lance was smart. He knew that Lance would be relatively alright, the guy had the best strategic brain he had ever seen, even from back at the Garrison. Sure, he joked around a lot, but there was a reason he was in the Garrison in the first place. Pidge was a programmer, Hunk an engineer, and Lance a strategist, as well as the pilot. Those three worked so well together, and Keith had to remind himself that whilst he was feeling utterly destroyed with worry, they were _all_ out of their mind with worry.

Pidge looked at Lance as a sort of big brother. Losing him reminded her of losing Matt, which almost drove her insane in a mixture of frustration and bitter sadness. You could often find her disappearing to her room, only to be shaking and mumbling incoherently about it being “ _First Matt and now Lance too.”_

Hunk saw him as a best friend, from the very beginning. The fact that he was abducted left a pit of hollow darkness in his stomach, and it had gotten to the point where he had to be reminded to eat, lest he forget and simply be driven on by the fact that he _had to find Lance._

Keith knew for a fact that Shiro and Allura felt responsible somehow. Keith would hear Allura hysterically muttering to Shiro at night, about how it was her fault in the beginning that they had even gone to the planet. Shiro wouldn’t stop talking about how it was partly his fault, he had forced Lance to travel without his Bayard after he had finished helping the people on the planet, so that he could “loosen up and have the most enjoyable experience without worrying about Voltron for once”. At the time Lance had thrown his head back and laughed, and gladly handed Shiro the Blue Bayard. Because of this, it was him who had seen Lance last, and Keith knew Shiro blamed himself entirely.

And it was no secret that Coran looked at Lance as if he were his son. As the oldest, he had been there for everyone, guiding them through their fears and worries. They all needed some sort of a rock to lean on, and Coran provided himself as there constantly. But the man was hurting. It felt like he had lost his own, and he didn’t know what to do with himself.

Lance was their family, and all of them missed him.

* * *

 

Sleep wasn’t something that found during the night, and as usual, Keith found himself wandering around slightly as to what to do with his time. Whilst normally he would’ve trained, he knew for a fact Shiro would have his ass in the morning if he discovered anymore “midnight training sessions”.

He was wandering aimlessly around the castle when it came to him.

_Red._

Of course! How could he have forgotten his lion!

After piloting Black for so long and then leaving for the Blade of Marmora, coming back to Voltron had been ridiculously nerve-wracking.

But there was Red, waiting for him as usual.

Allura had stepped down from piloting the blue Lion, stating that she felt her role in the team was to fight from the Castle with Coran. (But Keith had a suspicion it had something to do with Keith and his ever-growing anxiety of being back with Team Voltron.)

Lance returned to the Blue Lion, and Keith was easily accepted back into Red, much to his relief.Red reminded him of when he first started with Voltron when he first started fighting this war. Red tethered him to his beginning, and his own feet were moving before he had realised, practically running to where the Red Lion was kept. Sure he had been in Red since Lance’s disappearance, but that normally been for quick-fire battles in which he was so concentrated on _not dying_ to think properly.

Now he had time and he could connect with Red, a lion that had piloted both Keith _and Lane,_ and maybe, just maybe, he could figure out something as to where Lance was.

He got to where the Red Lion, as well as all the other lions, were currently, and was about to climb up into Red when he noticed movement in the room next to it and tensed as he realised that people were coming into the Lion's hanger.

Fuck.

He ducked his head slightly and hid behind Red, knowing that if he got caught right now, Shiro might possibly murder him for being awake.

Sure enough, Keith heard Shiro's deep voice in mid-conversion. But he sounded way too tired, exasperated... _angry?_

“- can still fight.” Shiro entered the Lion’s hanger and stopped in front of Blue, and Keith thanked whatever higher power there may be that there was a formidable distance between Red and Blue, so Keith could poke his head out from the Lion and attempt to escape back to the sanctuary of his room.Alongside him were Allura and Ulaz from the Blade of Marmora. Shiro carried on;“He hasn’t been missing long enough.”

“But what about when people start to ask where Voltron is?” Ulaz was speaking directly to Shiro, who by the looks of his facial expressions, seemed to be growing in anger and frustration. Allura, on the other hand, seemed tense, almost sheepish. “What will your excuse be?”

“Ulaz, you must understand, that Blue may not be so easily accepting so quickly. When Shiro suffered a disappearance, it took months for the Black Lion to accept Keith.”

Ulaz’s gaze grew even more serious if that were even possible.“But have you even _tried_ to bond with the Blue Lion again, princess Allura? People have already started rumours of the whereabouts of your previous Blue Paladin, and it is your duty as a member of Team Voltron to provide hope and reassurance to them.”

Keith stopped furrowing his way to the door, instead listening harder to the conversation. _Previous_ Blue Paladin? What the heck was that about?

“We just need a little bit more time, Ulaz.” Shiro’s voice grew firm and rigid, and it was only from experience that Keith knew that Shiro was reaching his limit in patience, and was attempting to keep calm. “As the co-leaders of Voltron, you must understand and accept our decision. Whilst Lance _is_ missing, we will not be so quick to replace him.”

_Replace??_

Keith felt himself moving before he even knew what he was doing. “What the hell do you mean, replace Lance?”

“Keith? Wha-What are you- _Keith Kogane why are you awake._ ”

“Shiro I swear you can tell me off later.” Keith;s gaze hardened as he turned to look at Ulaz. “What the hell do you mean, trying to get Allura to pilot Blue again? Why do you want to replace Lance, huh?!”

“Nobody is trying to replace him, Red Paladin, we simply-”

“My name is Keith, not _‘Red Paladin’ ”._ Keith was practically shaking with anger by this point. “I heard you talking to the others, don’t- don’t _lie to me._ Have you been trying to get Allura to pilot the Blue Lion?”

“Voltron is about bigger things than just one person, Kogane, your time at the Blade should’ve taught you that.”

“That kind of thinking is exactly why I left the Blade, Ulaz!” He growled. “Lance is an incredibly important member of the team, and he hasn’t even been missing for a month for you to be calling him the _previous Blue Paladin._ We’ve almost managed to find some sort of a lead, why do you want us to forget about him?”

Ulaz looked at him, his gaze dipping into distaste. “I had hoped that your time with the Blade, though temporary, would have provided you with the ability to keep your childish anger at bay.Clearly, I was mistaken.”

Keith felt his cheeks redden in humiliation.

“Lance may be important to you, to _all of you_ ,” Ulaz turned to Shiro and Allura, before continuing “But the war will not stop whilst you decide to go on a... What was it you humans called it? Wild goose chase, trying to find him.” He paused. “Who will protect the Universe against the Galra, like you? The blade can only do so much out of the public's eye. It is Voltron that is needed. Not necessarily Lance.”

And, just like that, Keith yelled a series of curses at the apathetic Galra before storming out of the Lions Hanger, a mix of bitter and angry tears that he couldn’t possibly show to the others spiking at his eyes.

  



	4. Escape Attempts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance attempts escape, and in doing so, finds something that changes the game completely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thankyou so much for your support guys!
> 
> (You should check out my other fic, it's a Circus AU I think you'll likeeeeeeee)

**-Lance POV, 2 days prior to phone call-**

It happened very unexpectedly, in Lance's opinion.

As usual, Jasper had been relentlessly tugging at his chains, in what Lance thought was just another one of his feeble attempts to break the metal. Whenever he had asked what he was doing, Jasper would grumble something about “almost getting it” and would carry on.

And, dear reader; Lance had been incredibly irritated at the lack of sleep this resulted in. Once upon a time, he had been a deep sleeper, but eh, the ever-present threat of an _intergalactic war_  had made it so he, alongside the rest of the paladins, had an incredibly light sleeping pattern. Of course, no mere mortal could match Shiro’s level of alertness, but Lance knew for a fact they were now and perhaps forever hardwired for any threat at any time. Any noise, any rustle, and they were up, armour half on and Bayard's flashing wildly.

And _man_ , it’s hard to sleep when there’s a constant tugging, followed by the occasional colourful curse and a frustrated pull. Of course, it was better than the events that would greet them during the day, which would include any number of sadistic fantasies the aliens would think up.

At first, it honestly wasn’t that bad, just them cooing at Jasper and Lance. But as the weeks went on, especially after they had officially been “sold” as the abductors liked to call it, things got almost unbearable.

But the problem was, whilst Lance felt empty and oh so drained after the day, as soon as they were left alone, Jasper would fruitlessly attempt to loosen his chains, all to no avail, leaving Lance without sleep and even more tired.

That was, until today.

Lance was lost in thought, genuinely becoming unaware of how much time has passed since he had last seen the sun, when a loud snapping sound echoed through the little black cell, and a rushed gasp of surprise, then elation.

_The chain had snapped._

Lance looked over in absolute _wonder_ at Jasper, who was looking straight back at him in glee. “Holy Quiznack Jasper!” He rasped, his voice slightly hoarse from earlier shouts of pain made.

“I know!” This was the happiest Lance had ever seen him, giddy and full of energy. “Here, lemme-“ he padded forward to lance and began to fiddle with Lance’s chain. “Getting them off when they’re on someone else is easy, all you have to do is-“ he grunted as he did some mumbo-jumbo against the chain, and sure enough, there was a slightly less dramatic _click_ , and Lance’s hand fell forward, no longer hoisted uncomfortably at an angle.

_He was free._

Eh, not quite, but it was better than before right?

“Jasper!” He was giggly, his entire mood improved by a couple billion percent.

After days, weeks, however long it had been, Lance couldn’t be sure anymore, he wasn’t fastened to a wall.

Jasper himself was smiling high and wide, the trauma from the day long forgotten. “Lance, we need to get you to some sort of communications device. If we can do that, do you think you could contact your friends at Voltron?”

_Voltron._

It had been a subject he had forced himself to think little of, to escape the fear and anxiety that would threaten to overwhelm his system. Thinking of how they were dealing with disappearance was one thing, but knowing that whatever they had thought of where he might be _just wasn’t right_ , tore him apart.

To the bounty hunters, it didn’t matter that he was a paladin of Voltron. They were a business, he came to realise as the time had gone on. A business that specialised in the buying and selling of the rarest species in the greater universe; Humans. Being one of the only species who were not interacting with all the other aliens in the universe, they became extremely interesting to some species, and hence, bounty hunters _loved_ them.

It was hard to get ahold of a human, so a lot of them were second generation, the original human gambling his chance to meet aliens and ending up living out their lives in captivity, “pets” to the aliens who once fascinated them.

But Voltron would come for him. Maybe it would be a little harder than the usual predicaments they managed to land themselves in, but they would get there.

He didn’t doubt his team for a second.

“Heck yeah I can! Lancey lance is back in business, baby!” He stood up with Jasper and rubbed his right arm tentatively, trying to get some sort of feeling in it again.

Jasper nodded, his face still bright, but serious. “We need to figure out how to reach the communications rig without someone realising. When they first brought me to this hell hole, I remember some of the layout they had.” He paused, thinking. “But we need to split up. I need to stay behind and find the other humans.”

Wait, no. “Uh, Jasper, my man, my dude, in case you haven’t noticed; we’re injured, weaponless, and have no idea what we’re up against. Are you sure we shouldn’t both do those things...ya know, together?”

Jasper furrowed his eyebrows slightly. “No.” He stated finally. “Lance, as much as I agree with safety in numbers and all that, we don’t have time. It’s been...months since I last saw the other humans. I don’t even know if they’re still alive. It’s taken me this long to actually get the chains off, And we can’t afford any sort of luxury in traveling together.”

“Didn’t think it was a luxury to escape an abduction together” Lance grumbled, and Jasper gave him a lopsided smile.

“Besides, I can't code for shit.”

At that, Lance broke out into a chuckle “I can’t either man. In fact, Pidge is our resident hacker back at the castle of lions, she just taught us all how to get a distress signal to the team if something ever happened.”

“Well, let’s just hope this ‘Pidge’ taught you well.” Looking over at the door, his gaze darkened. “When we open the door, you need to run as fast as you can. We’re somewhere in the holding cells, and they’re at the bottom of the airship. The communications deck is right in the middle, but it’s not too heavily guarded, I think.” He began to fiddle with the door, attempting to pry it open.

“What are  _you_  going to do?”

Jasper was silent for a couple ticks. Then-

“Cause as much havoc as I can.”

The door opened with a hiss, and they bolted.

* * *

 

Things went to hell a lot faster than Lance thought was fair, honestly.

He reached the communications deck after about a billion wrong turns, only to find that the reason it wasn’t heavily guarded itself was because it was opposite the weaponry, which had a platoon of guards, all faceless, all  _huge_.

Before he had time to start yelling at the universe for giving him quite possibly the  _shittiest luck ever_ , the guards started to shoot at him and he had to try and outrun them.

The problem was, Lance had just endured days and days or torture, he hadn’t walked once since he had been taken, and he was barely sleeping or eating.

In other words, he was no match for the Guards.

They tackled him kicking and screaming, beyond exhausted but _still fighting, dammit,_  and soon he found he was face to face with the red lady from before- Ezor.

“And to think!” She was striding around the large purple room, one hand on her head melodramatically in mock-shock. Acxa was standing still, a complete poker face painted across her blue features. “I convinced Acxa to let me visit you and your buddy so we could become _friends_ , and I find out that my prizes tried to escape?”.

Lance growled, struggling fruitlessly against the guards who were easily twice the size of him.

“..But..where is your buddy?”

His heart blossomed in relief slightly. _Jasper had made it, they didn’t have Jasper_

He had to buy the other man some time, and Lane knew he could do that by doing what he does best.

**Be annoying.**

Mustering up all the strength he could, he said: “Probably up Zarkon’s _ass_ ”.

Ezor genuinely looked taken aback. “Blue Paladin, you can't just  _say_ that!”

“What, it’s only the truth.”

“Truth?”

“Yeah, the truth. Jasper is probably up your leaders Ass, stabbing away, and he’s going to come for you next!”

Ezor giggled slightly, and Lance knew he was going to have to work harder. Axca frowned. “You’re lying, he’s here, isn’t he”.

“Mayyyyybe”

“Well; when was the last time you saw him?”

“The last time I saw him? ..It was definitely the last time I saw him, the time I saw him last.”

Ezor blinked. “No, Where.”

“Probably around the last place I saw him.”

Axca was starting to get irritated. “Which _is_?”

“The last place I saw him?” He paused, and reveled in both their faces of growing frustration, despite Ezor lightly trying to hide it. “It was definitely the place I saw him last.”

“He’s useless!” Acxa threw her hands up and walked over to Lance, crouching down in front of it, so that he was staring right at her“I sincerely hope you’re not trying to be funny, paladin”.

“ _I_ was going to say I sincerely hope you brushed your teeth, but it looks like I hoped for nothing” He replied, and pulled a shit-eating grin.

She stared at him for a couple more seconds before standing up to her full height at murmuring something in her native tongue - (Galran? Who knows). He didn’t even get a chance to suck in a breath when he felt a sudden burst of pain in his stomach. One that he knew would’ve crippled most grown men, and it was only because of Shiro and Allura’s intense training regime that he wasn’t himself.

He wheezed slightly, but he knew he wasn’t going to give up now. “Okay okay, I see how it is, you want to play a lil rough, that’s cute, really.”

Axca ignored him, attempted to talk to Ezor about something.

He tried again. “Seriously though, it’s unexpected, but not unwelcome.”

No reply.

“Didn’t think you were into that kinky shit, honestly.” Then he pulled a rather awful “New York mobster” accent and said “you’z a freak, baby”

“Shut up!” She looked practically insane, and he was elated. “For the love of Zarkon shut the hell up!”

“You _wound_ me, babe”

2 more hits to his stomach and black spots began to dance around in his vision. He groaned, trying to shift the uncomfortable angle the guards held his arms in, but they wouldn’t budge.

Still, he would continue with taunting his kidnappers, if it brought his new friend some time.

Just as he was getting ready to rant about something ridiculous, there was an angry yell from outside the room, and the doors opened, in which Jasper spilled in, held tightly by two of the same kind of guards. He looked like utter crap, covered in even more colourful bruises and cuts. Even his glare had dimmed slightly, defiant but so obviously worn out, shadowed by fear.

Great.

They were followed by two of the bounty hunters. As usual wearing their masks covering every last inch of their face. The only visible difference Lance could see was the one standing on the right had a tattoo that stretched itself from the top to the bottom of their right arm.

“Pathetic creatures..try to escape us..hmm?” They scorned at both Jasper and Lance but didn’t say anything more. Instead, the one without the scar muttered something in their native tongue to Ezor and Axca, before they turned once again and faced the ones holding Lance and Jasper. “Put them back in their cells. I have no mind to punish them now.”

The one with the scar gripped Lance’s chin roughly and paid no mind to his fruitless struggles against them. “Escape again and we won’t be so nice." They put their hand down and nodded at the guards, who started to move the boys out of the room. No longer so obviously terrified as before, he joined in on the fusillade of curses Jasper threw at their captors as they were dragged out of the room.

 

* * *

 

....They were back in the cell.

“ _Quiznack, quiznack, quiznack!”_ Growled Lance.

Jasper had been silent, a mix of sweat, blood and anger keeping his back turned to Lance completely.Somehow this made him angrier.

“Say something Jasper! What do we do now?!”

Nothing.

“Dude! At least tell me what happened with you, don’t just _ignore me_.” He huffed. “I know I messed up, but you can’t just leave me like this. You can’t just-”

“I’m not ignoring you.”

“Then what _are_ you doing?!” He said incredulously.

“I managed to find something that might change the game. I’m trying to figure out how to reprogram it in a language I understand.”

Finally he turned to face Lance, uncovering what he was holding. His hand was a bloody mixture of weird paintings, cuts and bruises, and sweat. But when he opened his palm…

_A phone._

At least, it certainly _looked_ like the alien phones he had encountered. Small yet capable of communicating through to completely different solar systems.

He let out a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding. Ridiculously, he felt a strange sort of ecstasy when he looked at the small grey phone.

He could contact Voltron with this.

He could go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual- comments and kudos make my entire day :D
> 
> Also, I love talking to y'all if you wanna hit up my Tumblr- @Notevennightshade


	5. Phone Calls ft. Lance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day of the phone call, this time from Lance's point of view.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so SO sorry this has taken so long. Exams hit me like a truck man.  
> But, nevertheless, here are 3000 words of Lancey lance, Jasper, and a ~suprise addition~ to the fic.
> 
> As for my other fic, it's in the works as well, be on the lookout. Hopefully, once exams are other I can start uploading on my regular schedule, but until then, hope you enjoy this.
> 
> Also, if it wasn’t already obvious: this fic is NOT canon compliant. Keith hasn’t joined BOM and Matt and Pidge have NOT reunited. 
> 
> Comments/Kudos make my day, but seriously, the amount of support I've received for this fic has been ridiculous. Thanks, guys, I love you all so much.
> 
> Come chat to me on my [Tumblr](https://notevennightshade.tumblr.com/) I'd love to see what you guys think of the fic and whatnot

**—Lance POV: Day of the phonecall—**

His fingers were trembling.

Apparently, the world wasn’t quite done with messing up his entire life. After the blur that was figuring out _they had a phone holy shit_ they came to be stumped by the fact that there was no signal.

Of _course_ , they would be defeated by _signal_.

And lance knew for a fact that Pidge would’ve cackled at his state, having survived another encounter with the space demons only to be lost for solutions because of some god damn signal.

It ended up with two of the worst days of his life, what with his “punishments” being stuff his nightmares couldn’t have concocted, then coming back to the solace of his dreary cell and seeing Jasper slowly grow insane trying to figure out some sort of a solution.

So now, a few days later, he felt his hands tremble slightly.

Axca had brung “moving day” forward by a week, meaning they were being sent to them _today._

They were grossly unprepared, beyond the point of exhaustion, and hurt in places lance didn’t even know _could_ hurt, but they had to do something this.

He wasn’t going to be some damsel in distress. Mama ain’t raise no fool.

They had gone over the plan about a billion times now, after figuring out that there must be something blocking the signal because intergalactic phones were advanced to the point where they would always have signal they had spent every waking moment planning, scheming, working.

The only way to get a signal was to access the communications room and stop whatever the hell was blocking their signal.

Simple, right?  
  
“Can you just go over what we do, one last time?”  
  
Jasper sighed. “Lance, I get that you’re stressed man. But all we need to do is establish a connection long enough for you to get to your friends. They’ll be able to help us.”

 

_Voltron will be able to help us._

Of course, he didn’t doubt his friends. Pidge was a genius hacker, capable of scaring galra off with merely a simple cackle. She was a force of nature to be considered with great caution.

As the time went on, Hunk became more and more confident, using his great size much to his advantage. Often a frontman, he would tackle robots before by even knew someone was coming.

Shiro had descended to next level fight skills, (Lance thought it may or may not have something to do with his galra arm). A one-man army, his _patience yields focus_ attitude could somehow obliterate an entire army.

(Lance is still mildly scared of him)

Allura and Coran were warriors. Despite Corans age and Allura originally not getting to fight a lot, after she stepped down from blue in order to help out at the castle, she kept on training. Coran was fast, ridiculously fast, actually.

And Keith.

Keith was something else. A global superpower himself, he could fight, bash, destroy and obliterate anyone who got into his way.

 _Damn,_  he missed them.

He wondered if they knew what happened to him. Of course, it was entirely likely they thought he was dead, but then again, just like they didn’t give up on Shiro when he went missing, he knew they wouldn’t give up on him.

“It’s risky.” He murmured

“Better than the alternative, right?”

The plan itself wasn’t exactly..ethically moral, but desperate times. Jasper would pretend to fall ill, screaming out in pain and horror, and hopefully (hopefully) he would be taken away by one of the workers, where he would knock them out and throw them into a closet so they couldn’t alert the guards.

(Jasper hadn’t seen the point in keeping them alive, but Lance insisted. He wasn’t a killer, at least, not yet.)

Jasper would then have to somehow infiltrate the control room (more knocking out was required) and break the projector blocking the signal.

Whilst this was happening, Lance would be waiting, watching at the phone, and once a signal appeared, call Keith’s phone.

Now, dear reader, you may be thinking to yourself, _aww, how sweet! Lance is calling his would-be boyfriend over the rest of the team! Possibly the one chance he gets, and he’s calling Keith! Klance forever!_

Sadly, this was not the case. Lance just... didn’t remember anyone else’s number (which was bad, and he was 100% sure Allura and Shiro would give him all the evils of the world should he find out.) Honestly, he’d probably call Shiro, or maybe Pidge, because he knew for a fact they were the only two who would be able to keep it together afterward.

Jasper seemed to be waiting for him to say something. “..Uh.. what did you say?”

“I asked if you were ready.”

“Oh. Uh. Yeah.”

Jasper gave him a sympathetic expression, not patronising of the sort, but just..mournal. At the fact that a *child* was wound up in the middle of an intergalactic war, at the fact that this kid, this one  _kid_ was a paladin of Voltron; had probably seen too much, done too much for him to ever be considered normal again.

“You’ll be okay; kid.”

Lance nodded blankly.

“Let’s do this then.”

Jasper glanced at Lance, and then let out a scream of agony.

Immediately, the workers guarding the outside opened the door to which Jasper gasped out, falling to the floor and rolling as if he was burning. “You- you need to - argh!”

“Please!” This was Lance’s turn. Theatre kid training, don’t fail me now. “Please help! I think he’s dying!”

To help this case, Jasper let out a couple more grunts and groans, still clutching at his side and rolling around viciously.

_He makes a pretty convincing case. Probably a theatre kid on Earth._

The guards looked at each other, obviously having some sort of mini discussion wordlessly, debating what to do. Jasper wasn’t yelling anymore and Lance subtly kicked him in the shin to remind him that _he was meant to be in never-ending agony_.

“Somebody help me!” He screeched. “Someone... anyone” He moaned and slowly, his yells turned into pitiful whimpers.

“Listen you gotta help him, he’s going to die if you don’t!”

Finally, one of the guards spoke, their voice rough and unwelcoming.“Not our problem, kid”.

 _Of course._ Lance thought fast. “Maybe, but who do you think Axca and Ezor will blame if he dies?”

This made them squirm a little. _Yes_.

After some sort of an argument with each other in their native tongue, they hauled Jasper unceremoniously over one of their shoulders, and without another word, left Lance. Jasper risked a glance over at Lance, who nodded grimly.

* * *

After about 20 minutes, a signal popped up on the screen.

_A signal!!_

Fingers shaking, he fumbled and put Keith’s number and waited.

He listened intently as he heard the phone ring, one, two, three times- before cutting off.

“What?! No!” Staring incredulously at the phone , Lance couldn't _believe_ he was about to be stopped by signal- _Again._

 _Think Lance, think._ The signal had worked for a bit, before cutting itself off. But-glancing at the signal box, it was still bright with a bar. So there _should_ be some sort of a signal. Maybe… Maybe it was because he was too far underground?

Yes! That must be it. Venturing nearer to the communication booth would he assumed, increase the signal, right? So… all he would have to do is somehow venture forward to find a place close enough to the communications center to actually place a call to Keith, but not near enough where it could be detected.

A..Halfway point, maybe?

Throughout his time spent in space, Lance had become pretty good at picking locks. Of course, he had his Garrison days to primarily thank there, sneaking out meant that you had to know how to get yourself back into the building when the staff locked all the doors (believe him, he had to learn the hard way after he and Hunk were forced to wait outside the doors in humiliation throughout the night in pouring rain, until someone decided to let them in.) as well as harassing Hunk into teaching him how to pick almost any sort of lock after he decided that Bond movies and other old spy movies just weren’t going to be able to cut it anymore, and he knew that Hunk, being the big gassy genius he was, would somehow know how to do it.

Nevertheless, that was Earth, and this was some sort of an alien warship prisoner extravaganza type of lock. Back at the castle,it had taken many hours of Pidge laughing at him in the background whilst Shiro patiently going over for the 20th time that _No, Lance, you can’t just ‘jab and jiggle’ at it until it works_ , that he managed to master the art that was, unlocking a bolted door. Picking at it, he grunted as he felt a satisfying _click_ and the door _whoosh_ open, before tumbling outside, ignoring a pit of worry begin to build itself up into his gut. He ran quickly and quietly, making almost no noise (He silently thanked Allura and her training modules that he was certain at the time would cause him some form of post-traumatic stress) and passed by many of what he presumed were more of the workers, all caught up in their own lives to notice him dash up different stairs, So long as he was quiet, the plan could still work.

He managed to find an unused room that he presumed was about halfway along to the communications deck, basing his presumption on his old attempt at escape. Slipping inside, he checked the phone, and sure enough, it now read as having full bars. His insides swooped slightly as he called upon every form of higher power not to resist him for screaming out that _he was a genius._

He typed Keith’s number in again, and waited, heart, pounding its way into Lance’s chest, as Lance dutifully tried to ignore it and focus on laying the most crucial parts of the phone call over to Keith. He knew that Keith would freak out during the call and after, and Lance simply didn’t have _time_ to waste on that anymore.

He felt the small _click_ and a voice mutter, “It’s Keith.”

Lance momentarily forgot how to speak. _It was Kieth, Keith was here, everything is going to be okay._ But, it was obvious something wasn’t okay. Keith sounded so… different. Layers upon layers of anger and hurt had etched their way into the two short simple words, and he almost forgot to reply. Whispering so as not to be heard, he mumbled, “...Keith? Keith are you there? I need your help.”

Silence- then- a burst of static causing him to cringe and hold the phone away from his face slightly. _Why wasn’t he answering Goddamnit._

"..Keith? Are you there? Can you... Can you hear me? It’s Lance, please... reply Keith."

"Lance? " Keith’s voice rang through the phone, relief evident in his voice. A pause."Lance? What's going on? Are you okay?"

"I don't know where I am Keith. I don't know where I am and nobody will tell me anything. This is the first time I've seen a phone in 3 weeks and me and Jasper had to work so hard together to get it, behind everyone's back. If they found out we’d be in so much trouble.”

"Lance..do you... Who are they? Do you know why they've taken you?"

His blood ran cold as he heard a rough voice in the background. “I think one of them is in here!”

_No._

They must have heard him somehow. That or they had tracked him somehow. Lance was _running out of time._

"Lance?" Keith’s voice was surrounded with worry, maybe he could hear them as well?

"Keith-" The door flung open and he felt his insides to turn to ice. There was no point running away, they had seen him. Quickly, he had to be quick- he _had to tell Keith before it was too late._  "Trace the call Keith! They're here!" He felt himself be shoved back, and yelling, he kicked out wildly, before he was sprayed in something he was sure would knock him out. There so many people, all shouting orders at each other as he desperately tried to tell Keith more, something, _anything_ about where he was. Lance groaned as he felt himself get punched, and felt something force their way into his hand and wretch something off of him. “No!” He yelled as the phone was taken.

Everything he had worked so hard for, fell beyond his eyes.

And, as the solace of silence and darkness enveloped him once more, he felt a tear sting at his eyes.

* * *

All in all, Lance was getting pretty tired of waking up with a headache in a _strange dark place,_ and his hands being tied.

When he finally woke up, it wasn’t obvious he wasn’t on the old holding ship anymore. Wildly he kicked out against his restraints to no avail, and the pounding in his head begin to seep its way past the worry and the hunger, seemingly hell-bent on adding to his dismay.

Looking around, he noted that Jasper was seemingly not there, and Lance didn’t know whether to feel strangely happy or not. On the one hand, Jasper could just be in a different holding cell, which _logically_ was the most likely thing that was happening here. But, on the other hand...maybe, just maybe, Jasper got out of the hell hole.

He groaned, the pounding headache leaving him with no room to think properly, think of some sort of a plan, _again._ Of course, aside from the headache, there as a little voice urging him to give up, give in, it was the best thing he could do for himself as of now.

Again, Mama ain’t raise no quitter.

He would just have to do possibly the most irritating thing since he had managed to get his ass captured- wait. Wait until someone else came over to him with threatening tongues and promises of _oh so much pain_ . Wait for them to demand information on Voltron, perhaps? Or just torture him for having the audacity of wanting to help save people and _not enslave thousands of people_.

He would just have to sit on his ass and wait.

* * *

An explosion rang out back at the base and Jasper started out, waiting expectantly. He heard Lance get dragged off somewhere, and soon enough, watched in utter dismay as he saw a shuttle leave soon after, one he was sure belonged to Axca and Ezor, the hags.

Timid, tired and terrified, it was all he could do but wait and hope and pray to whatever was out there that the bounty hunters wouldn’t find him- wouldn’t kill him.

And now he stared at the rubble from the explosion. It was internal, somewhere along the left side of the ship, but very close to him. Still on the floor, he crept out from under the table he had taken refuge under, and a figure stood out, peanut hair reaching just above his shoulders. Brown eyes were concentrated and focused, and he had a slight scar etched across his cheek. He was reasonably built, muscles showing beneath his rebel suit. He had a serious, yet playful expression spread across his face, and, despite his exhaustion, Jasper couldn’t help but smile. “You decided to show up.” He murmured.

“There was a bit of a hold up.” The other replied.

Matt Holt stood above Jasper, arm extended and reaching out. “Now...let’s go get your friend.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mean, I thought it was obvious he was coming, didn’t you?


	6. Gifts and Visitors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lotor finds out that Axca has a gift for him.
> 
> Matt and Jasper manage to contact some help- Voltron.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow I'm so sorry this is so darn late.
> 
> In all honesty, I've sort of lost my motivation for this fic- and I just don't think my writing is all that great in it. I think it's because I've had the basis of this fic planned out for literally 3 YEARS (originally it was a DnP fic lmao) so I never really knew how to carry it on.
> 
> However, as of now, I do plan on finishing it, as I know it can get suuuper annoying when fics are discontinued. And I do like this fic, I just don't think my writing is good in it lmao.
> 
> That being said- updates are probably going to be rather slow (sorry!)
> 
> Comments/Kudos are what keeps me writing, and are much appreciated. :D
> 
> Chat with me on my [Tumblr](https://notevennightshade.tumblr.com/) (@NotEvenNightshade), seriously, I'm a huge geek who would love to talk.
> 
> For now, enjoy :)

Lotor was watching the monitors when he heard the door open with a hiss. Not bothering to look up, he continued to stare at the screen, ignoring the watchful stares from the figures behind him. He was a patient man and knew what the people behind him were waiting for- a reaction. 

So, he continued as if there was no change in mood as if there was no sudden tension emulating itself throughout the room.

“Lotor.”

Axca’s voice rung out, her blunt low tone filling the room, commanding respect. But Lotor was far too well-versed by her tricks to cower under her. He was a prince, her commanding officer, heir to the Galran empire, to which millions-  _ billions _ should cower under him.

So he turned his head, his hair floating around him. “Yes?”

Axca stared back at him, her expression reading slightly angry. “We have the package- the- the boy.” 

His eyebrows raised. “Oh? And pray tell, who  _ is _ this boy.”

“His name is Lance. Lance McClain.”

“Ah...the blue one?”

“Yes.”

He smirked to himself.  _ Perfect. _ “And where  _ is  _ the boy, Axca?”

“Waiting outside, with Ezor. I didn’t know whether or not you wanted to see him or not right now.”

“We’ve kept the poor boy waiting long enough.” His smile bore no happiness, but greed and cruelty.  Why don’t we see what he has to say?”

* * *

 

“A paladin of Voltron?”

Jasper nodded. “The blue one.”

“So...how do we get to the others?”

“I’m not 100% sure, honestly.” They were standing in a shuttle far too small for any sort of comfort, but big enough to devise some sort of plan. “If we can figure out how to get to the others, maybe make a distress signal somehow, it would make it easier.”

Matt shook his head. “But with what? We have no tech, nothing good enough to make a satellite strong enough for the entire galaxy to hear.” 

Jasper looked at the communication deck. “Where’s the nearest rebel base?”

Matt sat down at the deck and typed in some coordinates before looking back up at Jasper. “Not too far. We can send a message to Voltron then- let’s just hope they’re friendly.”

“I’m sure they will be.” Jasper sighed. “Lance is such a great kid- and he spoke highly of his comrades.”

“But that’s just it” Matt’s voice was laced in concern. “How the hell did a bunch of  _ kids _ get stuck in an intergalactic space war?”

Jasper gave a lopsided grin at that. “I mean,  _ we _ got here, so anything can happen.”

Matt smiled, though it had tinges of sadness within it. He couldn't help but think of his family- particularly his sister, Pidge. 

_ “Don’t worry about me”  _ He had said.  _ “It’ll just be for a few months and before you know it I’ll be right down here again.” _

_ Pidge giggled, and punched his shoulder playfully, sending him sprawling to the floor. “You better.” She declared. “Or I’m comin’ up to space and getting you myself!” _

_ They laughed, and all too soon he was giving her a final goodbye-hug, ignoring the tears in her eyes, knowing she was trying desperately to hide them. “I love you- be safe, yeah?” She said, though it was slightly muffled with her head buried in his shoulder. _

_ “Of course Pidgey.” He murmured. “Don’t you worry about me.” _

His heart ached thinking of it- of his little sister, consumed in grief.

When things had gone wrong at the beginning, he had often wondered what the Garrison were going to say to his family. That they were dead? Missing? Abducted by evil purple space cats?

Now, he tried not to think about it. It had been too long since he last saw his family. 

One day he would see them again- he just knew it.

* * *

 

Pidge was typing something extremely fast, and Keith knew the power of whatever higher power there as out there would have to compete with her anger if someone dared disturb her. She was rapidly typing in coordinates and had been for a day straight.

Originally she was within her room, but eventually Shiro forcibly placed her in the living room so she could eat and not overwork herself (only after many death threats by Pidge.)

She was so focused on tracing Lance’s call to Keith it was almost as if she had lost realisation of everyone else around her.

So, when a slight beeping motion appeared on her computer, she let out a shriek- effectively causing the rest of the crew to jump out of their skin. 

Keith felt himself move before he was sure why. “Have you found something?” 

“I...I don’t know. I have a signal- coming from somewhere- but as to whether it’s from Lance- I don’t know yet.”

Shiro arrowed his yes. “How do you know it’s not Galra?”

“It’s a distress signal. And- Wait--! They just sent a message.”

Hunk clambered up onto the sofa. “Well- open it!”

Pidge nodded, hand moving across the screen.

It showed a man- human, Keith noted- with black hair and olive skin, covered in bruises. “Is it working?”The man asked. Someone behind the video

“Okay- so- My name’s Jasper, I work with the rebellion and I was held captive by bounty hunters- bounty hunters that specified in capturing humans- with you friend Lance.”

Keith inhaled sharply. The man carried on.

“Some Galra came- to pick Lance and I up, although I was never the main prize.Lance knew this and when the time came for the Galra to take us, he saved me from them. He- He was taken by those Galra. I don’t know exactly where, but I have a few ideas. And, I know that the Galra who took him were pretty high up, so we can start searching from there. If you would be so kind as to meet me and some of my team, we can discuss how to save your friend, and stop these bounty hunters. There are more humans being kept with them- around 12 to 20. Most are or were part of the rebellion.” The man- Jasper, paused. “My associate is sending you a meeting point now. We look forward to meeting with you soon.”

The message stopped there, with the screen going black. Pidge looked up, steely determination written across her face. “Well? Are we going to find them?”

Shiro nodded, before looking at the rest of the paladins, waiting expectantly. “If this guy- Japser- is telling the truth- then with his help, not only are we going to save Lance, we’re also gonna find more humans- humans that are a part of the rebellion.”

Keith thought back to when Lance had called him. “He’s telling the truth.” He muttered softly. “When Lance called me- he mentioned something about a man called Jasper.”

That seemed to be good enough confirmation to Shiro, who said: “Right then, let’s suit up.” He looked over to Allura. “Princess, set a course for the distress signal. Looks like we’ve got some rebels to meet.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the next chap, guess who get's to reunite?
> 
> Hint, it rhymes with "Molt Miblings"


	7. We get ready, we endure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, sO  
> This is honestly more of a filler chapter than anything else (*like s4 was*) And, it was meant to have a lot more drama involved, but I couldn't figure out how to end a particular scene, and I realised that holy hell, I haven't updated in SO LONG, so I ended up cutting it short so you guys would at least have something.
> 
> However, I am halfway through writing the next chap (as it was originally meant to be a part of this one) so I should have it within the next week, give or take a few days.
> 
> Also! Some important points:  
> -Lance isn't a damsel in distress. Seriously, he can take care of himself. Sure, he might need other people to help him (as everyone does), but believe me, he isn't going to be a helpless rag doll for Keith to save lmao.  
> -This, whilst being a "Lance get's captured" fic, isn't going to be xtra langsty. Like, he'll suffer a bit because it's sortof //essential for the story//, but there won't be any intense Langst.  
> -Lotor views Lance as an interesting creature, not really as a sexual object thingy. He's never seen a human before, and wants to disect any and all information about them out of Lance. And yes, he calls Lance pretty, but that's literal fact, people.
> 
> Chat with me on my [Tumblr](https://notevennightshade.tumblr.com/) (@NotEvenNightshade), seriously, I'm a huge geek who would love to talk.
> 
> Enjoy!

Lotor clicked his tongue disapprovingly. He stood in a room with a beaten, bloodied young man, wrists cuffed tightly to the wall behind him. The man in question wore the remains of a black flight suit, of which he had been dressed into his first day here, the top half having been torn off of him to make room for the new angry red scars painted across his body, the difference between his usually tanned skin now turned pale and sickly never more obvious.

And yet still, he would not speak.

The man intrigued Lotor. He wasn’t like any other creature he had ever encountered, and held such secrets Lotor knew his generals were adamant on getting. His generals were usually the ones who sketched across each scar to the man, hoping his brilliant blue eyes would fill with tears and pain, and that he may speak.

And yet, he remained silent.

He was a pretty thing, that much Lotor could admit, but it was more so his temperament, his personality which stood out to Lotor. He could be incredibly sarcastic at first, dropping rather crude responses to his generals questions, up until he began to receive punishments as a result of his disobedience. 

And it was interesting, seeing the young man slowly begin to break beneath him. As the cuts got deeper, the snide comments began to thin and the biting remarks had less sharpness to them.

And yet still, he refused to speak.

It-He-the boy,- would occasionally begin to twitch after one of the sessions with his generals. Lotor had never had much experience with any sort of human. Perhaps it was normal for them to do this when in pain? He would have to ask someone later.

As for now, the man stood, giving a frankly worn out glare at Lotor as he stood curiously examining him, slouched posture held up only by the metal of his handcuffs.

What an interesting creature.

* * *

 

After being shooed away by Pidge, Allura and Shiro, who were frantically making plans as to what to do once they reached the rebel base- which, Coran had helpfully told the others that it wouldn’t take more than a couple hours to reach-Keith and Hunk were bored.

Hunk, being the literal ray of sunshine that he is, offered to ease the tension by learning the recipe of some muffins that Lance used to really liked so that “If- _ When _ -he comes back we can bake some as a welcome home gift for him”- but Keith could see that Hunk was practically radiating anxiety the disappearance of his friend, so he ended up handing him over to Coran for some make do therapy sessions. Hunk protested, sure, but Coran was all to busy sweeping him up to the kitchens where they could talk.

So, what could he do? But train train,  _ train. _ Keith had thrown himself into training in such a way that would surely put his old routine to shame. If he wasn’t sleeping, he was training, or loitering around the common room where Pidge and Shiro discussed where it was a good place to meet the rebels.

Truth be told, he hadn’t even noticed Allura’s presence luring over at the edge of the training room until the bot almost stabbed her (note: she stabbed the bot first, very much to the surprise of Keith that someone was even there to begin with.)

“Keith.” She said. “You need to take a break once in a while.”

“If you’re going to act like a substitute Shiro, then go join him, ‘Lurra.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“With all due respect, my princess.” He added quickly.

“The rebels are going to come soon, Keith. I think it’s a good idea for you to take a break, maybe eat something- Lance wouldn’t want you to work yourself to exhaustion.”

He gritted his teeth. “I need to be prepared, Allura.”

“You  _ are  _ prepared. Lance-”

“Lance isn’t  _ here _ right now,” He bit out. “And maybe if I had trained a bit more, he would have been!”

Allura frowned slightly. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

Honestly? Keith wasn’t so sure. They had had no lead of any sort, and were still clutching at straws to try and figure out what was going on and why Lance was even taken. But if Keith had been there- if Keith had postponed the date, the goddamned  _ date _ he had been  _ so fucking excited for _ , then maybe, just  _ maybe _ , they wouldn’t be stuck in this mess.

Don’t get him wrong, he knew Lance wasn’t some damsel in distress. He was tearing his hair out of worry, sure, but Keith was fully aware that Lance, whilst in a really shitty situation, was well versed in various fighting techniques, was an excellent strategist, and was an incredibly talented sniper.

But Keith still worried.

Lost in his own thoughts, he hadn’t noticed Allura’s questioning gaze set fixatedly upon him. Keith looked up, adopting a slightly doleful expression painted across his face as he attempted the utter out a reply.

“Keith.” She prompted.

“...I guess...I don’t really know anymore. It’s like, if I hadn’t suggested that cafe, he would never have been there, in the eyesight of the kidnapper- abductor,  _ whatever they are. _ And now-” He stopped. “Now he’s in danger and it’s my fault.” He spoke quietly.

Allura’s gaze softened slightly. “Keith.” She began. “Keith, you and I both know that Lance is an incredibly capable person when he needs to be. And the rebels coming know- they’ll be able to help us in ways we don’t even know of yet. With the aid of the rebels, we’ll be able to track down Lance’s location, Keith. Lance will be home before you know it.”

“Yeah,” Keith said, looking down and clenching his fist. “And I’ll make whoever took Lance  _ pay. _ ”

* * *

“We decided.” Shiro spoke, entering his diplomatic attitude he often adopted in tense situations. “That it makes for only a couple people to come down. Hunk will be going-”

“And so will I.” Pidge finished. “Normally in a mission like this, which involves strategies, and diplomatic communication, we would take Lance, but…”

She didn’t need to finish her sentence. Once again, Keith felt his anger rise significantly. 

“Even so,” Said Coran, with an unusually serious expression. “You don’t normally do well with people you don’t know.”

Nodding, Pidge replied. “Believe me, I know. But...something tells me I need to go down there. I don’t really know what it is, but something’s going to happen, and I need to be there when it does.”

Keith started, but didn’t reply. He was mature enough to know that, honestly? He was probably the worst to go in a situation which involves people pleasing and calm attitudes. But if not himself, the worst in Keith’s opinion would have had to be Pidge, always preferring machinery than people. Still, when Pidge made her mind up about something, virtually nothing could convince her otherwise.

He nodded alongside the other grim faces in the room. This was happening, this was real.

“It’s time to meet some rebels.” He said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, no reunion of the legendary "Molt Miblings". However, stick around another week, and someone may or may not reunite.
> 
> Sorry it's so short, btw. But a new chap is very close to coming up, so watch out for that.
> 
> Oh! And next chapter, the main focuses will be on The Molt Miblings (,,,,,,maybe), and Hunk!


	8. Siblings can reunite,too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge finds something she's been looking for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ofc I'm late on uploading, I'm Nightshade, that's like, a part of the deal.
> 
> I actually don't like this chap because it's a lot of action and I can't write action AT ALL. Which is also why I actually found this probably the hardest chapter to write so far.
> 
> Even so, enjoy!

Pidge frowned, eyebrows furrowing together as she looked at the coordination. Something didn’t seem right, in her humble opinion. For one thing, the rebels had stopped communicating with them, just before they had officially given the all clear sign so that they could meet.But she still found a weird sort of tug towards whoever these rebels were, and she couldn’t quite place it. Maybe...they had information on her family?

Enough, she chided herself. You aren’t going to get anywhere with wishful thinking. This is war.

And yet- still, a slight bubbling feeling erupted in her stomach at the supposed prospect of meeting with her family once again. Wistful thinking, thinking that ultimately would lead her nowhere.

A breeze brushed past her, and she felt as if someone- something was looking at her.

She sighed.

I’m going crazy. She thought to herself.

Pushing thoughts of her family away, and her paranoia, she settled with working on her wrist computer once more.

What was there to do? But to grin and bear it.

* * *

Hunk reached forward a hand and the rebel, dressed in a complete black jumpsuit, with olive coloured skin, tired eyes yet a gentle smile. “It’s nice to meet you,” he said. “My name is Hunk, and this is Pidge.”

For less than a fraction of a second, something- recognition, maybe- seemed to flit through the eyes of the rebel. But, as soon as Pidge had noticed it, it was gone, with the rebel smiling, holding his hand out to Pidge and shaking her hand. “Nice to meet you.” His voice was deep and oddly calming. “My name’s Jasper.” He had a tired face, obvious effects of abduction still ever present, eyes slightly sunken in and holding what looked like something that would need a hell of a lot of therapy to overcome. He wore a smile, though it was lined with worry and slight fear. Pidge felt her heart twinge slightly at his almost broken expression.

He wore a dark coat, of which covered his arms fully, sagging down and falling to just under the knee. His arms were covered, but what little parts of the skin that could be viewed were astounding. It looked as if someone had forcibly written, perhaps tattooed all over him, incoherent symbols peeking out from his ankles. He was barefoot, and his olive skin looked like it was grey.

Hunk, straight to business, said: “You were with Lance.”

Jasper nodded in confirmation. “He actually helped me escape.”

“But you don’t know where he is now?”

“No.” Jasper paused. “But, I have an idea. The people who took him- they were bounty hunters. They knew about humans, there were a few dotted around in the universe- and they took them, sold them off.”

Pidge felt her heart speed slightly. Humans...like her family?

She felt herself speak before she was fully sure of what she was even saying. “Do you know the humans? How many of them were there? Where are they now?”

Jasper, for some reason, avoided her inquisitive gaze. “I know of some, but not all. As for where they are, I don’t know. But, my friend and I are almost close to finding out. He’s a coder, crazy smart, and I can bet I can bet wherever they are, your friend won’t be too far behind. Lotor was always a fan of new species, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’ll want more than just one new plaything. I mean, Lance is a paladin of Voltron, he’ll probably get another human to use them as leverage.” He looked down. “Towards the end, that’s what they used me for.”

His tone was so bitter, she felt her heart twist into knots. “Where is your friend? Maybe I can help them with the coding?”

Again, Jasper seemed to be slightly surprised by her appearance, choosing to flor his eyes briefly to her, then resumed his insistent stare at Hunk. “He’s inside the cave. That’s where some of the rebels facilities are for this sector.”

“We can discuss that more on the ship, but first, we need to-”

A huge crash sounded all around them, reverberating itself everywhere, causing rocks around them rumble together, and all of them ending up falling on top

Jasper looked up, then to the cave behind him, where the origin of the sound was heard. “What the..?”

But Pidge was already up, running at the origin of the noise, heart pounding as she sped down the cave's entrance.

She was always agiler than Hunk was, faster, and it looked like the trauma of whatever happened to Jasper was still taking its toll, as he was still on the floor, face masked in terror. She was faster than the two, not wasting time for a second, heart drumming in her chest as she sped down the cave. There was someone in there, someone could be hurt.

She reached the entrance of the main room and wrenched the door open. It was in ruins, papers flown around unceremoniously, desks overturned and disks shattered.

She scanned her eyes for anything, and her eyes landed on a figure in a clear defensive position, blond hair disheveled and holding what looked like a spear, pointed at someone that was concealed by one of the shelves in the room. He had a helmet covering most of his face, but she could make out that it was set in a firm, a grim line stretched and fixated on the attacker, likely the one who had caused the explosion.

She narrowed her eyes, running to aid the man, but doing so quietly, as to be seen unnoticed. As she got closer, she started to make out things from his appearance. His hair wasn’t blond after all, but rather peanut coloured. His eyes were hazel brown, and he wasn’t very tall, though easily taller then Pidge. He sort of looked like…

She stopped in her steps. The world narrowed, thinned. Suddenly it was just her, her breathing, and…

“Matt?”

The figure turned, but before he could reply, he shrieked: “Look out!” A voice rang out clear as day, jolting her from her thoughts just in time to see the boulder hurling itself towards her and wildly, she summoned her bayard and grappled it away, before letting go as soon as she was clear and falling to the floor clumsily.

Immediately she was up again, turning to look at the voice which had saved her life. It was the rebel, his face showcasing a million different emotions. wild with terror, then confusion, then recognition, eyes widening when Pidge could only guess he put the pieces together.

He was about to speak, to ask the question Pidge couldn’t dare do when an animalistic snarl echoed itself off of the walls of the room, and both turned, seeing the magnificent beast who had been cashing the trouble.

“Who are you?” The rebel demanded.

“Who I am is not important. I’m here to collect the bounty on you. But a paladin of Voltron, and the green lion...what a day.” The being hissed, voice too rough, too harsh.

“Stand back.” They said simultaneously.

Pidge grinned. “Let’s show this guy what we’re made of.”

“Sounds to me like you’re made of meat.” The creature said. “Just like everyone else!” He revealed two weapons, lasered-whips from the look of it, the electricity coursing through the whips as it lashed out, hitting Pidge, causing her to cry out in pain as she fruitlessly began to struggle to get away.

“Get away from her!” The man lunged, twisting his body forward whilst spinning his blade expectedly, the bounty hunter letting go of Pidge, concentrating on the rebel who was jabbing at him furiously.

“You’re both worth more to be alive, but I’ll take what I can get.” The hunter snarled, hitting the rebel, who screamed out in agony.

Pidge saw red as she hurled her Bayard at the bounty hunter, and she was lifted off the ground, swinging forward in an attempt to kick him. The hunter dodged, yelling: “You’ll have to do better than that!” As he threw one of his whips to attack her from where she was above the ground, and she fell off, yelling slightly as the jetpacks softened her landing.

“Pidge! The Panel!”

Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she looked over, grabbing a piece of the panel and tearing the metal casing down so that when the bounty hunter threw one of his whips at her, he tore into the panel.

“Now!” She yelled.

  
He ran forward, twisting his spear once more and jumped up, shifting so that all his weight was going into his final attack. He slammed back down and flipped the spear so that it hit the current from the bounty hunters whips directly, electrocuting the hunter.

Both Pidge and the rebel worked in tandem, yelling as they swung the fatal punch which immediately knocked the hunter out.

The bounty hunter lay unmoving at their feet, face down. Pidge pulled off her helmet, breathing heavily. The after-effects of the battle were beginning to wear off, and she felt her heart felt like it was going to burst from her body, beating a million times a minute, she turned to the rebel.

He was staring at her, incredulous- helmet off, eyes wide. ”So it is really you?...Pidge?” He said, barely more than a whisper.

The past few weeks had been tough on everyone, and it was a buildup of Lance’s abduction, the sudden shock of the fight, and to top it all off, the reappearance of her brother, which made tears well up in her eyes, but for once, she didn’t care. “Matt? Matt, is that really you?”

He threw his arms around her and they hugged fiercely, both of them reluctant to let go.

“Oh my Gosh.” She sobbed. “Ever since the Kerberos mission...they said you were dead, but I knew in my heart that you weren’t!”

“I can’t believe you found me, it doesn’t seem possible.”

Finally, they broke apart, Matt cupping her face with both hands.

“The thought of you and dad kept me going, inspired me to do the impossible.”

He smiled. “Okay. But seriously, how’d you get this far into space? Is what he said true, about you being a part of Voltron?”

She looked smug. “I’m not just a part, I’m a paladin.” (They were pretty much the same, and she was sure Matt knew that but Matt, thankfully, reacted in the right way, expression turning even more astounded.

“No. No way." He stopped, looking at Pidge, a slightly concerned gaze painting itself onto his face. "Is that...uh...safe?"

Pidge looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "I'm technically only in this situation because you ended up going on the Kerberos mission and getting lost in space. So, when we get home, you can bet your ass mom is going to blame _you_ , not me for this."

Matt blinked. "Now, what I meant to say was...that’s so awesome! My little sister, a paladin of Voltron.” He stopped, smiling tiredly. “Now all we gotta do is find dad." Matt paused, then; "You know that he’d be so proud of you.”

She felt herself glow with pride. God, she had missed him.

Hunk and Jasper came in then, both of them with weaponry at the ready, panting slightly. They stopped when they were greeted with the sight before them, Matt with his arm wrapped firmly around Pidge, and the bounty hunter laid out in front of them.

Hunk gave a slightly questioning gaze to Pidge, who felt Matt give her a reassuring squeeze. “Hunk, I’d like you to meet my brother, Matt.”

Hunk gaped, making Pidge smile more. “Jas this is my little sister, Pidge.”

“Now, let's all go to the castle.” She said. “We have a lot to discuss. The bounty hunter was no doubt sent by the same people who took Lance and, uh, you?" She said, the last of her sentence directed at Jasper, who nodded.

"Right then. Matt, gather any tech you've been working on recently. Hunk, Jasper, tie this guy up and search him, he's bound to have information on him."

The boys nodded and began to work. 

And though she felt beyond exhausted, hungry, and insure need of a shower, she couldn't help but grin.

She had her brother back, and, she had one of the bounty hunters that took her friend laying on the ground in front of her. This was the first  _real_ piece of information they had managed to get their hands on the entire time Lance had been taken.

They were a step closer to finding him. They were a step closer to finding Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An explanation about what the hell Lance has been up to, in the next chap. A for when it will come out, it really just depends on the feedback I get about this one. Hopefully, you guy liked this reunion?


	9. A plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance discovers the other prisoners aren't as helpless as they seem.

Lance frowned, rubbing his hands together to stimulate some sort of friction, give him some sort of warmth against the biting cold surrounding him.

At some point, he had grown accustomed to it- not in the way that it wouldn’t hurt him, but in the way that he wasn't so shocked by it. It no longer became a shock to him when he found his hand begin to turn numb- more so it became a morbidly useful tool, letting him know that the soldiers would be coming soon.

It had taken a while, but Lance had figured out their game. Whenever he truly began to think they were done with him, would be leaving him to die from exposure, or perhaps starvation-- whenever he truly began to think to himself that this was it, that he was going to die here (which, honestly, is the worst way to go, in his mind)- he would be visited by one of the generals, or soldiers, or even Lotor himself occasionally (which was always interesting.)

So, that meant he could begin to think of a plan.

Now, Lance, being the ever observant character that he was, hadn’t failed to notice that they kept more than one prisoner on the ship. He had often seen them doing tasks the soldiers on the ship commanded, all looking sullen and work out, constantly whispering and muttering. For a long time, Lance was terrified at what this meant for him- that he too would overtime, end up nothing more than a mindless murmurer, mechanically doing tasks for the Galra- nothing more than a slave.

  
Their job was to fulfill any tasks the soldiers themselves had no mind for, and eventually, that had included giving Lance food. Unfortunately, he had never managed to speak with them; the soldiers on the ship surrounding him as he was moved from one place to another guaranteed that.

But that was about to change tonight.

He, over time, had learned to take mental note on the voices that whispered endlessly as he walked down corridors courtesy of the prisoners littered around the deck, no longer ignoring it in favour of thinking of a one-liner to piss Lotor off. They were hard to hear and even harder to decipher, but they had a pattern to them that Lance, eventually was able to break. He realised that the whispers were a code not just meant for his entertainment as he trudged down each hall, but also for the prisoners themselves. It was a code for them so that they could warn one another what would be happening on that day.

They weren’t crazy at all. They were incredibly strategic.

But, in the past week, the whispers held a tone of urgency to them, detailing what Lance figured out was a time and a place.

Tonight, in the kitchens.

And, when he was slipped his food for the night, a sad mush that sort of looked like mashed potato except it was lilac (because of course, it was), a prisoner murmured “eat it slow”, before disappearing once more. Sure enough, when Lance inspected it, there, in the food, lie a small, bronze key.

The key to his cell. He could escape!

Except it was different now, he was different.

He wasn’t going to try and blindly get out. That wouldn't work, and Lance was fairly sure that it would end poorly for the prisoners as well, once someone realised how he managed to leave his cell in the first place.

And, as well as all of this, he couldn’t leave the other prisoners.

He had to be smart about this, and that meant taking things slow.

* * *

Carefully, once he was sure the guards patrolling had left for the night, convinced at him pretending to fall asleep, he unlocked his door and made his way silently to the kitchens, heart beating rapidly in his chest.

Just as he was making his way down the final corridor where the kitchen's doors were, a very short, very green prisoner spotted him and ushered him forward.

“You are the paladin of blue, correct?” The prisoner murmured.

Lance nodded, and the prisoner, content with his reply, said: “Good. I am Kor’e. We have been waiting for you- come now, the meeting is about to begin.”

The prisoner opened the door and Lance followed him in, gasping quietly to himself at the sheer amount of people clambered inside. Eyes followed him everywhere, and he found himself unsure of where to sit.

“Relax, paladin of blue, you needn’t be scared. We are not here to harm you.” A voice said, and, turning, Lance found it was a tall alien, with pale skin and kind eyes. She didn’t look too much different to a human, other than the unnatural colours of her hair and eyes, which were pink and white respectfully. She wore little markings below each eye and had slightly pointed ears. She sort of look a bit like--

“You’re altean?!”

The woman smiled. “Only half. But yes, I am. My name is Shuri.” She reached out her hand and Lance noted how rough it looked, no doubt due to the situation she had been living in. Still, she had a sympathetic, if not tired smile as Lance shook her hand firmly.

“I’m Lance.” He said. “It's nice to meet you. I don’t mean to get to straight to business, but…”

Shuri raised a hand. “Relax, Lance. It is understandable, we all are not fortunate enough to have enough to have more time. It is rightfully time to discuss why we have called a meeting.” She stepped forward and guided Lance to her side as she began to address the whole room. “We’ve been here long enough to begin to form our own sort of rebellion. Hell, half of us used to be fighting in the real one, before of course, being taken here.”

With how she addressed the people around her, it was obvious to Lance that she was seen as a type of leader to the rest of the prisoners. The confident, commanding voice she had mirrored her captivating structure, and she continued. “I hope you forgive us, Lance, but we’ve been watching your journey here. And, whilst it has in no way been easy for you, I can see you are beginning to rebel against your captivators individually, as well. And the time has come where we feel that, with your help-”

“We could get out of here.” He finished.

Shuri nodded, and a young man with light blue skin and black hair spoke. “We know the in’s and outs of this place- but most of us can’t fight- we were mostly information officers for the rebellion-- and the few who actually can- they aren’t like you.  But we think that, with your help, we have an almost sure chance at getting out of this dump, and getting back to the rebellion."

There were about a million flaws in their sentence, Lance noted, as he took in what was being said to him. “Even if I thought the idea of a mass breakout against the Galra when you guys don't even know how to fight  _wasn’t_ mass suicide-- why would my abduction suddenly mean you guys could get out of this dump?” he asked.

“You’re a paladin of Voltron.” A prisoner, one of the younger ones, said. She was sporting a druid arm, not unlike Shiro’s, which caused a twinge of unimaginable hurt to flit through Lance as he remembered how broken Shiro admitted he felt because of his forced amputation. The little girl, oblivious to his face of pity, continued: “You gave us hope. Like- Like we actually had a chance.”

Lance couldn’t see how him battered and bruised at the hands of Lotor was bringing the other prisoners hope. He began to feel himself growing incredulous to their hopeful faces, and so chose to focus on the other glaring flaw in their seemingly foolproof plan. “But- But there’s only one of me, and there’s like, an army of-”

“You can leave the army to us.” Kor’e said. “You will only be focusing on one person.”

And Lance knew who they would say before they had said it- but he refused to accept it. “You guys are acting as if you can just burst out of here! This- This isn’t even a full proof plan- I mean- And- people could get hurt!” He finished wildly.

The blue-skinned man narrowed his eyes. “People are already getting hurt as it is, paladin of blue.” He said. “You yourself a prime example of this.”

Shuri placed a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “We all know the risks, Lance. And of course, we’ll need to be discussing this in a lot more detail, strategizing, figuring out who will fight where and how.”

“You said that none of you guys even know how to fight!”

“And that is why you will be teaching us- each night from tonight- until the information team is ready with the programming, and gathering all the weapons. I assume it will take about 2 weeks.”

“You want to learn how to fight an army of Galra...in _2 weeks!?_ ”

“It’s not as if we have any other option, paladin. But, most of the fighting won’t be physical-we will explain closer to the time.”

“The main fight would be yours.” An alien said from the back of the room.

And, Lance knew what they were going to say before they said it, just like last time, but he didn't stop them this time. He, in a weird way, knew that this was what he was going to have to do right from the start, but perhaps subconsciously-had known that this was always going to be his fight in the end.

“Lotor.” Shuri finished expression hard. “You’re going to be fighting Lotor.”

“This is insane.” He said, not looking anywhere in particular. “This is insane, this is stupid, this is going to get someone hurt--”

He looked at the face of the prisoners aboard ship X36H. All tired, worn, battered and bruised, with PTSD and a whole lot of unknown mental and physical trauma- all because of the Galra. Looked at how each and every face wore the same, tired expression. From the youngest girl with the bionic arm to the oldest man with four- they both wore expressions to pained, too hurt. He looked down again, trying to muster up a response as to why this  _couldn't possibly work_.

He remembered home, his home, on earth, the trees, the sky, the beach. Marco, Luis, Veronica. His mother- grandmother.

He remembered his garrison days spent laughing with Hunk and staring at the boy who “would never notice someone like me, Hunk”.

Hunk had smiled softly, placed a hand on his shoulder, and assured him that life had a funny way of working everything out in the end.

He ached for the nights he spent with Hunk, Pidge, Shiro, Keith, Allura, Coran, even the mice for heaven's sake- gossiping about the latest planet they had visited or comforting one another's homesickness. How one day, after a particularly hard battle- after Lance had found out how Keith had almost sacrificed himself and had stormed into his room at 2:30 in the morning, yelling abuse at him before wrapping him up in a tight hug, murmuring into his shoulder to “never, ever, think that you’re not good enough to stay around- idiot.”

They had stared at one another, silence defenying, before suddenly they were kissing-- and it wasn't like how the movies potrayed it- Lance forgot to breathe and Keith hit his nose and neither of them had had any real experience doing this kindof stuff and  _why were Lance's hands so sweaty Jesus Christ_ \-- but fireworks were still shooting off in his mind- and nothing else existed, not an intergalactic war that was looming over them as the days went on, not any of their friends (even though absentmindly Lance wouldn't be too suprised if Pidge was hiding in the vents somehow- nothing else mattered, nothing but Lance and Keith, Keith and Lance, here right now.

He missed home.

He missed Keith.

Lance sighed. “This is insane.” He looked up, staring at the crowd of prisoners. “Let’s do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't wanna be one of those authors who constantly apologise for how long it's taken to get another chapter out- so I'll just say this:  
> I have my final exams in the next 2 months. expect very slow updates. That being said, as soon as I'm done with them- (June 15th, also the day s6 comes out) I'll be able to update very quickly. This was the first multi-chaptered fic I ever worked on so I didn't really know what I was doing a lot of the time- but I should have a clear outlook on what's happening now.  
> And, just to clarify: Lance is not a helpless guy. I'm tired of seeing that trope flung around in the fandom. He got abducted, sure, but he isn't some damsel in distress. He's a badass, and you'll be seeing just how much of one in the coming chapters.
> 
> (also, comment if you got my reference in this chapter- I'll be interested to see if you got it)
> 
> Kudos/Comments really encourage me to write faster- and please don't hesitate to hit me up on my [Tumblr](https://klaxces.tumblr.com/) , I'd love to talk with you guys (seriously, I don't mind).
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
